MISSION — With his team trailing 10-7 early in a critical ballgame, PSJA High senior receiver Miguel Flores lined up out wide along the home sideline. Senior quarterback Justin Morales stepped behind center and hiked his foot up to put his favorite target in motion.
Flores cut across the back of the formation as Morales snapped the ball, faked a handoff and rolled out to the right. The Mission defense bit hard on the play fake and sold out to the right side.
That allowed Morales to pivot and fire a bullet pass to Flores running toward the opposite sideline in space. Flores caught the pass in stride, shook past a defender and waltzed into the end zone for a 42-yard touchdown up the sideline to get the Bears’ passing game in rhythm and lift PSJA High over Mission High in an old-fashioned shootout 36-28 on Friday night at Tom Landry Stadium.
“It was a motion and I wasn’t scared, but I saw this guy coming at me,” Flores said. “I was trying to get the ball before he came to me, so I got the ball, missed him, took it to the house and scored.”
Flores and Morales’ deep touchdown pass and catch put the first offensive touchdown of the game on the board and gave the Bears’ an early 10-7 edge.
But most importantly, the big-play score seemed to open up the floodgates for a PSJA High passing offense that was clicking all night.
In the first quarter, the Bears drove inside the Eagles’ 30-yard line on three separate occasions. They walked away with only three points to show for it after missing a long field goal attempt and failing to convert on a fourth and short.
Mission’s offense couldn’t get going out of the gate, either, and the team ended the opening quarter without a first down. From that first Flores touchdown on, though, the game was a different story.
“I knew our offense had a down week last week against McHi, but I knew they were going to come through big this week and they did,” PSJA High head coach Lupe Rodriguez said. “They came through big and the key players stepped up for us tonight.”
In a gunslinging, free-for-all that was reminiscent of some high-flying Eagles’ offenses of years’ past, PSJA’s Morales and Mission quarterback Jeremy Duran both looked unstoppable from the pocket after the start of the second quarter. The duo combined to toss 100 passes.
In that 12-minute frame before the half, the Bears and Eagles combined to score five touchdowns highlighted by Duran’s long touchdown throw to Jose Cortez from 67 yards out and an 80-yard bomb to Stevie Villarreal.
“In the beginning, we struggled a little bit under pressure but our line dug deep and played really well tonight,” Duran said. “That was a big reason for our success tonight and our receivers were breaking of the routes, getting off the press and making plays out there.”
The Eagles added one second half score, but had too difficult of a time sustaining drives at critical junctures to turn the contest into a track meet toward the end.
Duran ultimately finished the night completing 19-of-40 passes for a season-high 277 passing yards and three passing touchdowns. Villarreal shined out wide with 11 yards on 5 catches with a 67-yard punt return score to his credit also.
But for the majority of the night, the PSJA High defense was able to hold Mission in check with its relentless pass rush and strong press coverage from it secondary.
“We gave up some silly plays on special teams and some big plays, but our defense has always been strong,” Rodriguez said. “They’ve held strong and tonight they did that too.”
Morales and Flores led the way in what was an outstanding offensive night for the Bears. Morales threw for a season-best 424 passing yards on 37-of-60 passing with three passing and one rushing touchdowns to his name.
Flores, meanwhile, was the biggest X-factor in the game and couldn’t be stopped from making one spectacular catch after another. He again proved why he’s 30-6A’s leading receiver by hauling in a game-high 17 receptions for a season-high 257 yards through the air and three touchdown catches.
“We knew that they knew what we were going to do,” he said. “We would fix things, like if I was going to run a post I was going to curl it up. We were trying to work smarter and I think that’s what helped us.”
The Bears’ win throws a wrench into the district standings, creating a three-way tie for first place between PSJA High, Mission and McAllen Memorial with only a week remaining in the regular season.
Both the Eagles and Bears have already clinched playoff spots, but Friday’s result put a little more fire in the bellies of players on either side.
“I’m just happy. We really wanted this win and we knew from the beginning that this team was going to be tough,” Flores said. “We needed to beat this team to try to get into a tie for the district championship.”
“This feeling sucks right now. I feel like I played my best, our team played our best and we gave it our all, but we just came up short,” Duran said. “This is a bad feeling, but we’ll regroup and come back harder than ever. We’re going to earn that top spot in this district and then show everybody in the playoffs what we’re about.”